Opalesque Roundtable Series - Japan 2010

Welcome to the Opalesque 2010 Japan Roundtable! Any financial prediction is only as good as the presence has been understood. In this Roundtable, you will discover a multitude of key aspects about Japan and Japanese hedge fund investors – who were the first institutions in Asia to support hedge funds. This wealth of information, compressed into 29 pages, is hard to beat:

How comes that big global brand name hedge funds are not trusted as much as in the past by conservative Japanese investors? That smaller funds have unique opportunities at the moment?

Japanese institutions are well-known as huge holders of foreign bonds like US treasuries. Are they now reducing their bond exposures against hedge funds?

Investors say 2009 was a very positive year for the Japanese hedge fund industry. While the macro numbers are well known – the population decline, debt, and deflation etc. - how comes that still many people are able to make money in Japan? 22 new hedge funds were launched last year alone?

Since 1945, Japan went through 14 business cycles. Did you know these cycles have can be easily modeled?

Did you know that Japanese firms have cut costs to the extreme so that if in 2010 sales grow just by 3%, earnings for the top 300 companies can go up by 50% or more?

What lessons from Japan's last twenty years can be applied to the U.S. and Europe going forward?

How comes that probably until 2020 Japan will be able to afford its low interest environment?

What does the recent technology upgrade by the Tokyo Stock Exchange to
their Arrowhead System at the start of this year mean for hedge funds and investors?

Why do hedge fund managers celebrate the introduction of IFRS probably within the next three years?

Did you know that Japanese individual investors are more contrarian investors, while foreign investors are usually trend followers?

How is Japan coping with the rise of Asia and China? What are the opportunities for Japan in green technologies?

The Democratic Party of Japan has taken control of Japan's Lower House with an historic election victory, a turning point in post-war Japan. What does the “end of the Japan Inc.” era – exemplified by letting the national flag carrier Japan Airlines go bust – mean for the country? What opportunities do hedge fund managers see?

and much more!

The 2010 Opalesque Japan Roundtable was sponsored by NYSE Liffe and took place in their Tokyo office with:

Hidemichi Watanabe, Founder, CEO, WERU Asset Management

Dr. Izumi Kazuhara, Chief Representative, NYSE Liffe

John Inamine, Head of Alternative Investment Strategies, SPARX Asset
Management

Masahiro Koshiba, Founder, CEO, United Managers Japan

Paul MacGregor, Director, NYSE Liffe

Rory Kennedy, COO, Rogers Investment Advisors

Toshihiro Hirao, Co-Founder, Asuka Asset Management

We also thank Rory Kennedy for helping us put the group together, and Customhouse Group and Taussig Capital as our 2010 Roundtable Series sponsors.

The Opalesque Roundtable Series offers unparalleled intelligence on the most important global hedge fund jurisdictions and their players. The Roundtable Series is a free publication from Opalesque and is continually updated. Please scroll down to view the full selection of our Roundtables - covering the globe!